Louis XIV, the Real Sun King by Aurora Von Goeth

Louis XIV, the Real Sun King Reviews

• 
  Ilse

  Having read a more extended biography on
  Louis XIV last year by Richard Wilkinson, stung by further curiosity on certain facets and topics (like Jansenism, the ballet and the arts), to my own amazement I found myself slowly developing an ongoing fascination for the man and his times, which brought me to read another book devoted to him, to refresh my memory before embarking on another recent more comprehensive biography which was received favourably, namely Johan Op de Beeck’s
  De Zonnekoning.Glorie & schaduw van Lodewijk XIV. This little volume by the writing duo Aurora von Goeth and Jules Harper largely served that purpose.
  
  
  Louis XIV, the Real Sun King is a laid-back and compact introduction on the monarch and provides a quick overview of some basic facts of his life and extraordinary long reign (72 years), thematically structured around nine chapters following more or less chronologically Louis XIV’s life (ancestry and birth, boyhood and rise to sun kingliness, loves, art, fashion and court culture, wars, Versailles, health issues and last days).
  
  A nice feature of the book are the numerous illustrations of engravings and paintings, picturing Louis XIV, his relatives and battle scenes, as well as other artefacts and medals which reveal the impressive propaganda machinery in function of his gloire (mostly from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the National Gallery of Art in Washington). As the illustrations are well contextualised and clarified they make an edifying addition to the text.
  
  
  
  Louis XIV (after Pierre Mignard), circa 1700
  
  While starting off promising, the narrative when proceeding gets rather uneven in expanding relatively lengthily on what seem minor anecdotes when having to capture a life of this stature in such a slim volume (for instance taking two pages to elaborate on two similar anecdotes to illustrate how the normally so self-controlled Louis could lose his temper in a dining or family context, describing a fight with his brother Philippe de France, the Duke of Orléans, ‘Monsieur’), and so wasting precious space to cover more meaningful events or insights on his reign. The authors – Von Goeth according to her website displays a special interest in and has a weak spot for Louis’s only brother, the ‘adorable’ Philippe de France (and his lover the Chevalier de Lorraine) which is pretty obvious from the text - concentrate on Louis XIV’s relatives rather than on his ministers or other prominent figures circling around the king. Particularly the chapters handling the Chateau de Versailles, art, music, dance, fashion, and French court culture - which would become of great influence in Europe - are informative and in their brevity finely done. It would be unfair to compare the short bibliography for further reading with the extensive list Wilkinson included, however I thought it remarkable that from the standard bibliographies Wilkinson recommends only one appears here, Antonia Fraser’s
  Love and Louis XIV: The Women in the Life of the Sun King– Wilkinson’s book, though published recently, isn’t mentioned either.
  
  
  
  Philippe de France, Duke of Orléans, brother of the sun king, in the clothes he wore to his brother coronation, unidentified painter (1654)
  
  More matter-of-fact and less juicy (apart from a few digressions like the story how Louis XIV got introduced in love by One-Eyed Catherine and mentioning even more mistresses) than the Richard Wilkinson biography I read last year (of which the jesting tone and particularly his condescending approach of Louis XIV’s mistresses at times enervated me), if you don’t expect a critical approach on the monarch and neither look for more profound insight into the nature of absolutism or the religious issues of the time nor mind the anecdotical take and here and there somewhat babbling tone (to summarise Europe in the seventeenth century: ‘It was all a bit of a mess and got even messier when the exiled James II of England died’) as a short introduction the book is not without merit and as such recommendable.
  
  My honest thanks go to NetGalley, Pen & Sword and the authors for granting me this ARC.
• 
  8stitches 9lives

  This is an excellent concise biography of Louis XIV of France. Jules Harper and Aurora von Goeth provide a thoroughly engaging and accessible account of his life and times and highlight just how pivotal King Louis XIV was in Europe and beyond. It gives us the basic facts about his reign and a foundation of knowledge to build upon in the future, if you so wish. I particularly enjoyed learning about the King's relationships with women - he was quite the ladies man it seems!
  
  Another well written and meticulously researched book from Pen & Sword. The illustrations really compliment the narrative and the bibliography is a very useful little feature which I will be using to choose another title in order to further my knowledge of this influential King.
  
  Many thanks to Pen & Sword History for an ARC. I was not required to post a review and all thoughts and opinions expressed are my own.
• 
  Tiffany

  I have changed my rating from a two star to a one star. It has come to my attention from somebody on the history communities on Facebook that Aurora Von Goeth is guilty of plagiarism. I no longer have the book and cannot double check the sources, but a lot of people have said that the author's blog has articles that are directly ripped off from other sites like Wikipedia and other sources discussing Louis XIV and his contemporaries. If the posts on her blog aren't directly copied and pasted, they are Frankensteined with Aurora changing a few words or phrases here and there.
  
  I will not support any author that has been found guilty of plagiarism. Regardless of whether the plagiarism has been found in their books or on their personal blog. And looking into Aurora Von Goeth's blog, I have discovered that the author neither cites her sources, nor references them, and when comparing some of her articles to Wikipedia, I have noticed that a lot of them seem to be copied and pasted, poorly paraphrased with Aurora changing only a few words here and there.
  
  Aurora Von Goeth needs to realize that any form of plagiarism, whether that be copied or pasted, changing a few words here and there, not citing her sources/referencing her sources is not a good look for an author that is writing about history... or any form of academia for that matter.
  ---
  
  My initial review criticized the author for her writing, the way she chose to summarize Louis XIV's life and politics as barely readable snippets that barely contained any information, and her attempts to simplify Louis XIV and other aspects of history.
  
  Fact is, this book is subpar compared to other books about Louis XIV that I've read. The writing is lacklustre, the way Aurora tries to explain Louis XIV and his life is poorly written and researched, and the book seems to be written for fans of the BBC Versailles show who aren't necessarily going to be interested in learning about the historical figure and his time. However, if this book was aimed at the fans of a show and was meant for an introduction of Louis XIV, Aurora failed to shed a single light on who Louis was a person, did a poor job at describing his politics and views, and seemed incapable of even understanding a single thing about the 17th century and Louis XIV.
  
  And now, with the new information that I have on this author and her personal blog, I wonder if the poor quality of this book has anything to do with the fact that Aurora herself doesn't understand anything that happened during this period. If perhaps she relied too heavily on plagiarism and her book was a summarization of her plagiarism.
  
  It has come to my attention that the author of this book has published another book titled: "In Bed with the Sun King" where she openly admits on her blog where she takes 'her' articles about the mistresses of Louis XIV and slapped them into a book and published them for money. Yet, Aurora doesn't cite her sources on her personal blog, she doesn't reference anything... and the articles that I've read are carbon copies of Wikipedia pages about these historical figures.
  
  *Let it be clear that the plagiarism in this case is alleged. I no longer have the book so I can't investigate the matter properly myself, but there are many people on history forums on Facebook that are accusing the author of plagiarism. They could only be talking about the personal blog from the author or they could be talking about both the blog and the book.
  
  **Doing a little bit of an investigation myself on the blog, I see that there are a lot of problems. This includes doing side by side comparisons to articles and Wikipedia pages. I have not looked into other sources like other books yet. Aurora Von Goeth also doesn't cite or reference where she got her information from on her blog- which is considered plagiarism within academia circles.
  
  ***I have not read In Bed with the Sun King, and I have zero inclination to do so. However, the author has admitted that she took her articles from her blog and put them into her book, and if this is the case and it is word for word exact with the problems I have addressed with the second point, then Aurora Von Goeth is at the least guilty of being dishonest. Even if you cite and reference your copy and paste or other forms of plagiarism, it doesn't make it any less of a crime.
  
  I take any accusations of plagiarism seriously. Until the author either cites and references her sources, rewrites the articles she has on her blog, or proves that she's not guilty of plagiarism (regardless of whether it is her book or her history blog) will I reconsider my review and change my opinion of both the author and her work.
• 
  Alison

  I received a copy of this book in return for an honest review via Netgalley.
  
  This book was a bit of a mixed bag for me, so I decided to give it an overall three star rating. It was a good read, and I did learn a few facts, but it was just this - a series of snippets, facts and anecdotes and is perhaps aimed more for the reader new to the life of Louis XIV.
  
  The beginning also spent a great deal of time setting up Louis’s antecedents, and as the book had his name on the cover I just wanted to get on with his life.
  
  I was particularly impressed with the variety of images throughout the book, some of which I hadn’t seen before, and some of the interesting reading listed at the end of the book.
  
  One to dip in and out of for interesting facts, but not for a comprehensive view of his life.
  
• 
  Annarella

  An interesting and compact biography of the Sun King. A good starting book, with a lot of great pictures.
  Strongly recommended to those who want to start reading about Louis XIV.
  Many thanks to Pen & Sword and Netgalley for this ARC
• 
  Nicki Markus

  Louis XIV: The Real Sun King is an engaging, quick little biography of the famous French monarch. In just 144 pages it doesn't go into great detail, but it gives an enticing overview of his life and times and offers a bibliography with suggested further reading for those keen to delve deeper. This would, therefore, be a fine starting point for those wishing to research or just learn more about Louis XIV. The extensive illustrations are a lovely addition, breaking up the text and offering a visual representation of the people and events. Overall, this is a fine introductory text.
  
  I received this book as a free eBook ARC via NetGalley.
• 
  reveurdart

  3.5 stars.
  
  Good introduction to Louis the XIV, though a bit uneven in places. The book is arranged thematically, which mostly worked for me, but I wanted something a bit more chronological. What this book does best is describe aspects of Louis XIV's life and reign in an accessible and digestible manner. This book is not heavy on sources, however, so I will be reading more books on Louis XIV that are more detailed, in the future.
• 
  Maximilian

  It's quite an interesting and amusing book. It is on the lighter side of biographies, rather trying to entertain than educate. It's not a book for academic reference, however, it is worth a holiday reading!
• 
  Edy Gies

  I found this book to be a good quick guide, but if you are looking for a comprehensive biography I would look elsewhere.
• 
  Samantha Morris

  A fantastic little introduction to a fascinating monarch. Full review to come!
• 
  Victor

  Nice book , maybe too many details and no action. Sincerely a little bit boring to read.
• 
  Lisa

  his book was a little dull at first, but it soon livened up with the account of Louis's fascinating love life, with the beautiful Mancini sisters and Louise de Valliere, who seemed to be having affairs one minute and guiltily rushing to church the next. There are chapters devoted to every aspect of the great French king's life, including his patronage of the arts, his wars, and the building of the magnificent Versailles Palace. It is clearly and simply written but an interesting read.
  
  
  
  While Louis XIV was undoubtedly a despot, he could be quite enlightened. There is evidence that he refused the offer to use a biological weapon, for example. Louis thought that 'the means of destroying life were sufficiently numerous', and paid the chemist who made the discovery to keep it to himself. The great king was also the first to introduce an award for 'exceptional officers' of the military which could also be granted to non-nobles. He also founded a large home and hospital for aged and wounded soldiers, an idea which is also a good one for our times.
  
  
  
  The French king still has a huge influence today, through music, comedy, dance and his splendid palace. He is an endlessly riveting object of study, and this book is an excellent addition to the collection.
  
  
  
  I received this free ebook from Net Galley in return for an honest review.